“These little feluccas, like our little lugger, slip along even when there seems to be no wind at all.  Then he may be bound to Bastia; in which case he is wise in getting an offing before the zephyr sets in for the afternoon.  Let him get a league or two out here more to the northwest, and he can make a straight wake to Bastia, after his siesta is over.”

“Aye, there go those greedy Englishmen a’ter him!” said Ithuel; “it’s as I expected; let ’em see the chance of making a guinea, and they’ll strive for it, though it be ag’in law or ag’in natur’.  Now, what have they to do with a Neapolitan felucca, England being a sworn friend of Naples?”

Raoul made no reply to this, but stood watching the movement in silence.  The reader will readily enough understand that Ithuel’s remark was elicited by the appearance of the boats, which, five in number, at that instant pulled off from the frigate’s side and proceeded steadily toward the felucca.

It may be necessary now to mention the relative positions of the parties, the hour, and the precise state of the weather, with a view to give the reader clear ideas of the events that succeeded.  Le Feu-Follet had not materially changed her place since her jib-sheet was first hauled over.  She still lay about a league a little north-of-west from the residence of Andrea Barrofaldi, and in plain view of it; a deep bay being south of her and abeam.  No alterations had been made in her canvas or her helm; most of the first being still in the brails and the latter down.  As the head of the frigate had been kept to the westward for the last hour, she had forged some distance in that direction, and was now quite as near the lugger as was the promontory, though nearly two miles off the land.  Her courses were hauled up, on account of the lightness of the air; but all her upper sails stood, and were carefully watched and trimmed, in order to make the most of the cats’-paws, or rather of the breathings of the atmosphere, which occasionally caused the royals to swell outward.  On the whole, she might be drawing nearer to the lugger at the rate of about a knot in an hour.  La Divina Providenza was just out of gun-shot from the frigate and about a mile from the lugger when the boats shoved off from the former, though quite near the land, just opening the bay so often named.  The boats, of course, were pulling in a straight line from the vessel they had just left toward that of which they were in pursuit.

As to the time the day had advanced as far as eleven, which is a portion of the twenty-four hours when the Mediterranean, in the summer months, is apt to be as smooth as a mirror and as calm as if it never knew a tempest.  Throughout the morning there had been some irregularity in the currents of air; the southerly breeze, generally light and frequently fickle, having been even more light and baffling than common.  Still, as has been seen, there was sufficient air to force a vessel through the water; and, had Raoul been as diligent as the people of the two other craft, he might at that moment have been off the western end of the island and far out of harm’s way.  As it was, he had continued watching the result, but permitting all the other parties gradually to approach him.